How to make 100,000 copies of Linux on CD?

How to make 100,000 copies of Linux on CD? What is the best way to do this and most cost effective?
Im planning to give them away in a country where the NGO I work for operates. Most people there are too poor to afford the expensive Windows. I figure by the time people pass them around between friends and family it may be good for around 300,000 PC. I was thinking I would print a booklet out in the various dialects to be attached with each CD to help people with installation, etc. I have already arranged several NGO to do the distribution. Any advice or input here on this would be appreciated.

If it were me making that many copies, I would implement software that is capable of burning to more than one drive simultaneously (Multi drive support).

Then I would buy a case that comes with a wide selection of front drive bays and fill those puppies up with DVD burners.

Or if you don't want to build a machine yourself, they do offer machines specifically made for burning to multiple drives. The only problem with that is, it will hurt your pocket book, it is just best to build one yourself.

If you want to get those Linux CDs out there quickly, that is the way to do it.

If it were me making that many copies, I would implement software that is capable of burning to more than one drive simultaneously (Multi drive support).

Then I would buy a case that comes with a wide selection of front drive bays and fill those puppies up with DVD burners.

Or if you don't want to built a machine yourself, they do offer machines specifically made for burning to multiple drives. The only problem with that is, it will hurt your pocket book, it is just best to build one yourself.

If you want to get those Linux CDs out there quickly, that is the way to do it.

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I don't think this is a sensible suggestion.

100,000 disks, even if you could burn 10 at a time in 5 minutes, that is going to take you half a year to burn them all working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day without a break and that excludes any label printing or time to package.

I think the OP needs to look at a bulk cd duplication/pressing service (something i have never needed to do).

100,000 disks, even if you could burn 10 at a time in 5 minutes, that is going to take you half a year to burn them all working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day without a break and that excludes any label printing or time to package.

I think the OP needs to look at a bulk cd duplication/pressing service (something i have never needed to do).

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I agree, a duplication/pressing company would be more ideal.

But, I did throw my suggestion out there, in case one ever decides to go that route.

Thankyou everyone for the replies. Just to update, we have plenty of volunteers so labor is not an issue. We pay no rent on our buildings as they are given to us rent free by supporters and business will help finance the purchase of a few machines. Although a bulk cd duplication/pressing service is probably the best way to go in the short term, I think in the long term it might be best if we can burn our own CD`s. This would give us the chance to produce other CD`s on various topics if we needed them without relying on a paid service. Although Im probably getting ahead of myself here, Im thinking if we can make our own then down the track we may be able to produce educational material, for example school books, etc on CD that we could pass out to those families that cannot afford them. There are also factories that manufacture blank CD`s in the country concerned so the price is probably very cheap compared to Western countries.

Another question, I was thinking of going with Linux Mint stable version for the print run, because it seems the easiest for people to use, but if others feel I should go with a different version please let me know, thankyou.

I'm thinking it might be a good idea to post the instructions and other pertinent information such as the importance of computer and data security on a website in case the instruction booklet was lost or defaced.
This website could also (perhaps) include information about yourself and the organization you represent as well as a link for contributions to further this and other projects.

-And-

A direct download link for Mint and possibly other distros for those who didn't get a CD/DVD copy from your organization.

I'm thinking it might be a good idea to post the instructions and other pertinent information such as the importance of computer and data security on a website in case the instruction booklet was lost or defaced.
This website could also (perhaps) include information about yourself and the organization you represent as well as a link for contributions to further this and other projects.

-And-

A direct download link for Mint and possibly other distros for those who didn't get a CD/DVD copy from your organization.

Thanks for telling us what Distro you're considering. I was going to ask.

I'd go with Linux Mint LTS unless Linux Mint Stable is the same thing. Problem is afaik is Mints regular update cycle is what 6-9 months? And that the current Mint LTS Maya 13 support ends April 2014.

So OP I don't remember you stating time parameters for this trip. I'm going to make some assumptions so don't bite my head off. I think the next Mint LTS will pickup seamlessly from Maya 13. So the LTS will be from April 2014 - ~April 2018.

So let's say your trip is at least a month after the newest Mint LTS. So thats what I'd use. Also as the days go by even the new Mint LTS will have updates provided. So every few days I'd make new MASTER copies of Mint LTS with all the latest updates. You wouldn't throw away the previously burned copies you'd just be trying to be as up to date as possible.

You read the wrong version zapjb, 13 LTS is supported until April 2017 while 14 is supported until April 2014. 17 LTS will be released some time after Ubuntu 14.04 LTS which should be April 17 of this year. It will be supported until 2019.

The update will be far from seamless IMO, this is the 4th major update released after all. You will need to most likely re-install for everything to work without issues.

You read the wrong version zapjb, 13 LTS is supported until April 2017 while 14 is supported until April 2014. 17 LTS will be released some time after Ubuntu 14.04 LTS which should be April 17 of this year. It will be supported until 2019.

The update will be far from seamless IMO, this is the 4th major update released after all. You will need to most likely re-install for everything to work without issues.

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Awesome!!! Thanks. I used to know that. That's what I get for posting without drinking any coffee.

Oh 2 things. I still think making new MASTER copies every few days is a good idea. And by seamless I meant with the WRONG dates I provided there would not be much/any times between LTSs.

what about the 100,000 computers these will be installed on? usually they come with some OS pre-installed... and some of the newer laptops don't have cd drives anymore.

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We did a check on this over the last few weeks and found that over 70% of the people we would aim at are still using Windows XP with no money to upgrade. We ourselves have passed out computers over the last few years, but these are already old, used computers that have been donated and often came with XP or Vista. With Microsoft no longer offering support for XP after April 8 I thought handing out Linux CD`s was a good idea to help. Most of the people we help include rape victims, victims of human trafficking in the sex slavery trade, homeless, near homeless and those living in the slums. They often have old computers with a really lousy wireless network and limited bandwith so their in no position to download what for them would be a large file. Our aim here is to try to help people build some life skills, get an education and get a job. Computer skills are a part of that. The people we deal with mostly do not have newer type laptops so that will not be an issue for us. Most of these people have never even heard of Linux, in fact I first only installed it a few months ago myself. So I guess this plan is a bit of a rush, but Im pleased with the response im getting from people here and have received some good advice and ideas already,

Since I first started this thread we have distrubuted 20,000 free copies of Linux. I have stopped the distribution for now though because of several reasons. Mainly I would like to make a distribution that is more suited to local communities. One thing is a lot of people do not speak English, they have their own local dialect, I would also like to add a local country search engine, desktop photos of local scenes, and several other addons. I do not want to fork a linux distro, but I would like to take a current Distro and change things around much like Mint done with Ubuntu and give it a new name that reflects local communities in our area of work.
Question, is this legal? What about copyright? What Linux rules do I need to comply with? We are not selling the product, we are giving it away.
Also, although we have been giving away copies of Linux Mint, Ubuntu, is it a good idea to spin something from these or would Debian be better? The reason I was thinking Debian was because it seems to be a community project without the involvement of big companies. I would also like to make the distro available both on disk as well as a website where it could be downloaded.
Any feedback or ideas on all this would be appreciated,

20,000. That is great - which part of the world are you distributing these ?

You are best contacting the distros directly, you should find them helpful, Debian I know has a specific site with lots of information on creating your own Debian based LiveCD (http://live.debian.net/).

Few things you need to check: Are there any trademarks (e.g. Firefox, Ubuntu names and logos) that you have permissions to use. You may need permission to configure a distros repository as default. Do you have permission to redistribute any binaries, choosing Debian would avoid much of these issues.
Copyright, GPL requires you to provide sources of any changes on request and keeping existing header information (copyright notices) intact (you can add to them.

20,000. That is great - which part of the world are you distributing these ?

You are best contacting the distros directly, you should find them helpful, Debian I know has a specific site with lots of information on creating your own Debian based LiveCD (http://live.debian.net/).

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Thankyou, we are distributing them mostly in Philippines, Cambodia at this stage. One thing of interest, was visiting North Korea a few weeks ago and it seems Linux is the only operating system people are using there.
Another thing I noticed was when I was in China the Government is openly telling people to get rid of Windows and use Linux. In fact I noticed on the Ubuntu website they are developing a special version for China called, Kylin.

Thankyou for the Debian link. I want to avoid any hassles with big companies, so Debian seems the way to go.
Also, what exactly do you mean by....GPL requires you to provide sources of any changes? How to do this?

We did a check on this over the last few weeks and found that over 70% of the people we would aim at are still using Windows XP with no money to upgrade. We ourselves have passed out computers over the last few years, but these are already old, used computers that have been donated and often came with XP or Vista.

Most of these people have never even heard of Linux, in fact I first only installed it a few months ago myself.

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I don't know, I feel you're going to over complicate stuff. These people are going to need tech support. The thought of "let's give give them all linux" sounds nice, but in practice it's going to be a lot of work on their end. And "rape victims, victims of human trafficking in the sex slavery trade, homeless, near homeless and those living in the slums" aren't really going to want to mess with a new OS.

Instead of doing something that radical, just get some open source software, like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libreoffice and have them install it on whatever they already have. You're asking for a lot of hardware grief and no Linux distro is going to "Just work" on the tons of variety of machines you'll be having people put it on.

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Not that handing out Linux disks is a bad thing. It's just that most of us who play around with it wouldn't dream of handing it to family members without us having to play tech support. Depending on the situation, it might be good to have a secondary cd of some basic open source software, like a web browser, office software, email etc to just install on their Windows computers.